The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

After loving my first Christie novel And Then There Were None, there was no doubt that I would be reading more of her works - I especially wanted to get acquainted with her Poirot books. However, I just couldn't make myself give a break between the reads and immediately decided to pick this up because it came with some amazing recommendations from my dear friends. And wow were they not wrong.

The author's writing skills are even more at display here. The beginning gives us such small town gossipy feels that we get into a false sense of security... and once the murder occurs, we are thrust into the lives of all those who are associated with Roger Ackroyd and might gain something by his death. Told through the perspective of the town's doctor, the story makes us piece together the timeline, and then makes us question the sequence of events all over again. Poirot is a fascinating personality and his nature of keeping the cards close to his chest, only revealing them little by little at opportune times was lots of fun to read. He is also not exactly condescending, but is definitely not above some humble bragging about his superior investigative process. I have come to realize that the author loves her big reveals and that's exactly what we get here too. I was never going to guess the murderer anyway, and the highly dramatic way Poirot reveals the truth both shocked and completely delighted me. Once the murderer is revealed, it all seems obvious but the author never gives us easy clues throughout the story, and that's what I guess makes her such a popular author.

Another book that I can't sing enough praises about, this is a very interesting story that gets its hooks into you pretty quickly and you just can't put down until you know the truth. Definitely a must read and I highly recommend to all mystery lovers (like me who are new to discovering the joy of Agatha Christie). I also know that I'm going to read many more books in this series this year, because there's no way I can resist. And catch up on the TV show right alongside them.

When two deaths rock a small village, they are shocked. But when a third person turns up dead, this time murdered, the gossips are out in force. Roger Ackroyd, a wealthy member of the community, is seemingly murdered behind a locked door, and no one can figure out who would have wanted him dead.
As clues begin to emerge, blackmail becomes one of the apparent motives for one of the previous deaths, but how does that play into the death of Mr. Ackroyd, and why?
Detective Poirot, although retired, is asked to look into the case, and as he begins to dig, every person in the house seems to have a motive.

This book - just wow! I could not stop! I had to know who the killer was, and in the end, I was almost surprised at the culprit. I had some suspicions, but they seemed to be pointing every other way but to the actual killer. I absolutely LOVED this one!

I had some trouble getting through this book because it was more the revealing of facts than it really was a story. Up until the very end I was pretty uninterested as to who had killed Mr. Ackroyd. And I do not want to be one of those people who are very proud that they guessed the correct murderer. Except I am, regrettably, and I did.

The identity of the murderer is really the only thing that made the novel interesting, which is unfortunate since it is at the very end. So the whole thing was quite boring until the last couple of pages. I am glad I have read it but it wasn't what I had hoped it would be. 

 This is my first Agatha Christie novel and to say I had fun with it is an understatement.  It's really hard to talk about this book without spoilers but I will say that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a very well-constructed murder mystery that left me guessing up until the last moment.  Part of why it's fun is that the characters are all really interesting and suspicious in their own way.  You can see why anyone could be Roger Ackroyd's murderer and each piece of detail and dialogue leaves you thinking.  I am a lifelong consumer of fictional murder mystery media and part of the fun of consuming this type of content is figuring out why the creator would include certain details.  Christie is a master at this.  She leaves so many little nuggets of information sprinkled throughout the book that the reader has to decide which are relevant and which aren't.  As a result, I felt like I was playing along with the characters in the book.  While they were trying to figure out who the murderer was, I was trying to figure out what Christie was doing.  And yet I will admit that I was totally fooled.  The best mysteries are the ones in which you as a consumer feel like you got outsmarted by the creator in an honest way and Christie certainly got the better of me.  Every clue was laid out for me to piece the puzzle together but I didn't.  Well done Agatha, this is a classic for a reason.
 

I accidentally clicked on a spoiler early on and spoiled myself with the ending, so I ended up meticulously highlighting a bunch of things that Sheppard said or did. So when chapter 13 hit, it seemed that Sheppard could be the suspicious one. He and Poirot seemed to have a lot of conflicts, compared to Hastings (though, I've only read one book with Hastings lol but the language is slightly different between the two). I also really like that he brought up how he's the Watson to Poirot's Sherlock, but definitely more “foolish” as this book brought up quite a lot :Chuckle: I really like how it ended! I suppose Sheppard is the foolish one, thinking he can outsmart the Poirot the hair dresser LOL Caroline was the MVP, saying all these things about his brother, and they were all quite true about his true nature..

I hated this book. The culprit was so obvious. It was one of her earlier books so it was not as good as her other books. Once you know the culprit (which is very easy to figure out) it's just a waiting game. And I have read books of hers knowing the criminal (murder on the Orient express) and I enjoyed it despite the lack of mystery. This book is so not worth checking out and is one of Christie's weaker works.